Ganesh
Himachal, 9th century
Bronze
5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm.) high

HAR No. 8023

Uma (Parvati)
Tamil Nadu, Chola period, 11th-12th century 
Copper alloy
15 x 8 1/2 in. (38.1 x 21.6 cm.)

Provenance:
Estate of Kelly Brook, acquired in India in the 1950s.
Galleria Ethnologica, Forli, Italy, 2011.

A serene figure of Padmapani
Northeast India, Pala Period, 12th century  
Bronze with silver and copper inlay
3 7/8 in. (10 cm.) high

Provenance:
Private European collection.

HAR no. 8032

Seated in rajalilasana on a lotus base with his right arm elegantly resting on his raised right leg while the left holds a lotus stem, clad in a dhoti richly inlaid with silver and copper medallions, adorned with silver and copper inlaid jewelry and a sacred thread, his face with a benevolent expression with silver-inlaid eyes and urna, his hair styled in a high chignon topped by a knop, centered with a stupa and secured by a tiara.

The Pala dynasty, which flourished from the 8th-12th century in northeastern India, was one of the last strongholds of Buddhism, as the country became increasingly Hindu by the 11th century. As Buddhism continued to flourish under the Pala rulers, there was a surge in travel among Buddhist practitioners and laypeople to sacred sites associated with Buddha Shakyamuni. With this came the expanded propagation of Buddhist texts and religious icons, which were easily transported by pilgrims. Bronze sculpture which were especially portable, played a crucial role in the propagation of Buddhist iconography throughout the region. As a result, Pala bronze work achieved an exceptional level of sophistication and to this day, is revered as one of the golden eras of the Indian sculptural tradition.

This sublime figure of Padmapani, the Bodhisattva of compassion, is emblematic of the artistic mastery of Pala period bronze work. Rendered with jewel-like sensitivity, the god sits languidly atop a throne of lush lotus petals. The body is modeled with exceptional naturalism and sensuality. From the fleshy toes, to the slightly bulging belly and exaggerated curve of the torso and shoulders, every detail is rendered with a softness rarely captured in metal. The abundance of shimmering silver and copper inlay suggest this sculpture was an object of particularly special veneration. Compare with another Pala period bronze image of Maitreya in the British Museum, London (U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p.282-283. cat no.69D).

A brass figure of Bahubali
Karnataka, 15th century 
Brass
13 3/4 in. (35 cm.) high

Bahubali, also called Gommateshwara, was a son of Arihant Adishwar. According to Jainism, he was the second of the hundred sons of the first Tirthankara, Rishabha and king of Podanpur. The Adipurana, a 10th-century Kannada text by poet Adikavi Pampa (fl.941 CE), written in Champu style, a mix of prose and verse and spread over in sixteen cantos, deals with the ten lives of the first tirthankara, Rishabha and his two sons, Bharata and Bahubali. According to the Digambaras he was the first human in this half time cycle to attain liberation.

A bronze shrine of Tirthankara Anantanatha
Rajasthan, Dated 1491 Samvat (1434 CE)
7 in. (18 cm.) high

Provenance:
Art & Textiles of the Islamic & Indian Worlds Including Works from the Collection of the Late Simon Digby;
Christie’s South Kensington, 7 October 2011, Lot 313(1).

A brass figure of Rama
Orissa, 15th century
Brass
16 1/4 in. (41.2 cm.) high

Provenance:
Acquired in the 1990s, New York.

Rama is the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a legendary king of Ayodhya. He is one of the many popular figures in Hinduism, specifically Vaishnavism and many details of his life come from the Ramayana, one of the epic poems of Ancient India. Rama’s life and journey is one of perfect adherence to dharma despite harsh tests of life and time. He is pictures at the ideal man and the perfect human. This marvelous bronze image from Eastern India has minute detail. The bronze caster has taken great pains to ensure the end result is of the highest quality, and the image certainly does emulate the ideal man.

A silver-inlaid bronze figure of Ganesha
Himachal Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh, 10th century
4 1/8 in. (10.4 cm.) high

Provenance:
The collection of Simon Digby.

Literature:
John Siudmak, Indian and Himalayan Sculpture and Thankas from the Collection of the Late Simon Digby, London, 2011, pgs. 20-21, no. 9.

A bronze figure of Parvati
Tamil Nadu, Vijayanagara period, 15th-16th century 
3 in. (7.6 cm.) high

Provenance:
Private Florida collection, acquired 1965-67, by repute.
Bonham’s San Francisco, 17 December 2018, lot 340.

A brass Shiva lingam cover
Maharashtra, 18th-19th century
28 in. (71.1 cm.) high

A brass figure of Krishna
Orissa, 15th century
9.5 in. (24.13 cm.) high

A bronze butterlamp depicting Gaja Lakshmi
Kerala, 17th century
11 1/4 x 7 5/8 in. (28.5 x 19.5 cm.)

Provenance:
With Kapoor Galleries, by the 1990s.

Literature:
V. Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, New York, 2002, p. 217, 220-221, cat. 58.

A bronze stepped lotus mandala base
Northeastern India, 12th century
11 in. (28 cm.) high

Provenance:
With Kapoor Galleries, by the 1990s.

HAR No. 7627

A pewter and brass spice or pandan box adorned with birds
Northern India, 19th century
10 1/2 in. (27 cm.) high

Provenance:
With Kapoor Galleries, by the 1990s.

A Small Brass Figure of Gaja Lakshmi
Orissa, 18th century
3 1/4 in. (8 1/2 cm.) high

Tara
Kashmir, 9th-10th century
Copper alloy with silver inlay
7 ½ in. (19 cm.) high

Provenance:
Henry Spencers and Son Auctioneers, The Square, Retford, January 1996.
Paul M Peters Fine Art Ltd, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
John Nicholson’s, Haslemere, Surrey, April 18, 2018, lot 141.
Sotheby’s New York, 22 September 2020, lot 316.

Published:
Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart.org), item no. 13749.

The Sanskrit name Tara is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘tarika’ which means ‘dilveress’ or ‘savioress.’ She first appears as an attendant to Manjushri in the Manushrimulakalpa and, later, as an enlightened figure in her own right, in the Taramulakalpa, likely authored sometime in the seventh century. The present figure—a commanding image of the all-knowing goddess Tara—is a product of the valley of Kashmir. 

A flourishing center of Buddhist learning, the people of Kashmir were great patrons of Buddhist works of art. Kashmir’s location, bordering northern India, central Asia, and the western Himalayas and its historical shaping under the Gupta and Huna peoples made it a racially and culturally diverse center for the arts. The mid-seventh-century Karkota dynasty and mid-ninth century Utpala dynasty were instrumental in disseminating Buddhist ideas and arts from Kashmir, exporting their cultural products to their neighbors. Expertly inlaid precious metals exemplified by the present figure’s three silver eyes are one of several hallmarks of a perennially exquisite style of metal sculpture born from Kashmir. 

Tara’s diaphanous top is hemmed to reveal her cruciform navel in a distinctly Kashmiri fashion, decisively differentiating it from the Gupta aesthetic. Such an attenuated waist, protruding belly, and large hips are common among early images of female deities. For another example of this type, see a four-armed silver-inlaid bronze figure of Tara at the Ashmolean Museum dated to the first half of the ninth century (acc. EA2013.67). Dr. Pal describes a mode of facial representation shared among Kashmiri sculpture of the ninth century (Bronzes of Kashmir, New York, 1975, pl. 47), as characterized by a full face, flat nose, and less elongated eyes than earlier prototypes—qualities shared by the present bronze and the Ashmolean example. The present figure, though, shares the prominent chin of earlier examples such as a Prajnaparamita or Sarasvati which Pal attributed to the seventh century (The Arts of Kashmir, Asia Society: New York, 2007, p. 94, fig. 98). 

The present Tara’s ornamentation, however—particularly her multi-stranded belt—closely matches that of a tenth-eleventh century wooden relief fragment depicting Tara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. 1994.488; P. Pal, The Arts of Kashmir, Asia Society, 2007, p. 58, fig. 42.). While the Met example has been ascribed to Himachal Pradesh, the two modern states are known to have been historically intertwined and, thus, it is typical to see sculptures such as the aforementioned Ashmolean example attributed to “Himachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir” (see P. Pal, The Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Chicago, 2003, p. 124, fig, 76.). The Ashmolean example which may have originated in Kashmir also features heavy beads and a belt with bells.

The lustrous and smooth surface of the present bronze is relevant to a likely hypothesis about its early provenance: that this fine Kashmiri bronze figure of Tara made its way to a Tibetan Buddhist shrine. For the sculpture appears not to have been ritually bathed and repeatedly cleaned nor to have been excavated from the ground, as it would if it were collected in Kashmir. As Buddhism in Kashmir waned, Kashmiri artworks such as the present remained ritually efficacious and treasured objects in the places to which they were exported.

Shiva Vinadhara
Tamil Nadu, Vijayanagara period, 14th century
Copper alloy
32 1⁄4 in. (82 cm.) high

Provenance:
J.R. Pons Collection, Spain, by the 1970s.
Private American collection, acquired from the above in 1995.

Shiva stands here in a fluid tribhanga, donning a short veshti secured with a multi-banded belt punctuated at the center with a modest kirtimukha or ‘face of glory.’ Shiva’s face is perfectly symmetrical and equally composed in countenance as it is in modeling, conveying his transcendent power in a less explicit manner than his clearly defined third eye. He holds a battle ax (parasu) and a leaping antelope (mriga) in his upper hands symbolizing his dominance over nature. His primary hands project gracefully forward to the position where they once held his characteristic vina, a long-necked and pear-shaped lute.

According to Hindu practice, music has the power to lead one to moksha (liberation) and the present manifestation of the god Shiva embodies that notion. In his collection of poems known as Thiruvilayadal Puranam the Shaivite saint, Appar, describes an instance in which Shiva appears in the form of a woodcutter and plays the vina for one of his disciples. Therein he describes the vina as particularly lively and spirited among instruments for the ease with which it can be played without interruption. 

While this manifestation of the god Shiva is described as ‘player of the vina,’ it is worthwhile to note that there is no known sculptural example including the actual instrument  This element likely would have been separately cast and, thus, its loss is consistent with the figure’s age. The energy of the music Shiva represents is, instead, conveyed through the tips of Shiva’s fingers, which are modeled in position to steer the absent instrument’s strings, and in the naturalistic sway of his hips. 

This striking bronze sculpture would have been commissioned for a temple shrine, but fitted for public procession for all to experience darshan—a sighting of the divine, which can have a tangible impact on one’s life.  The practice of creating processional bronze figures like the present began in South India in the Pallava period (75-897 CE) and continued through the Chola (848-1279) and Vijayanagara periods (1336-1646). The present figure’s circular lotus base supported by a multi-tiered square plinth became common among Chola-period bronzes. The lugs along the base allow for the insertion of poles used to carry the image during festival processions. These practical fixtures are also present in Vijayanagara examples. 

The present Shiva’s hair is styled in a high jatamukuta (a pile of matted locks) sans protruding ornaments (such as a crescent moon and serpent) although decoratively elaborate. While this hairstyle appears to be a simplified expression of earlier Chola-period hairstyles with deeply defined locks and three-dimensional ornaments, a thirteenth-century bronze figure of Shiva in his manifestation as ‘The Lord Who Walked With Swaying Gait’ (Vattanaigal Padanadanda Nayakar) based on a poem by Appar from the twelfth-century (Kulottunga I era) which resides within the well-known Valampuram temple of Nagapattinam demonstrates that this style was born by the late Chola period. The undeniable likeness of the figures’ narrow faces with a sharp nose and full lips suggests that the present figure may have been modeled based on the twelfth-century Valampuram Shiva. The present Shiva’s robust thighs are a testament to this possibility, as limbs seem to become increasingly less naturalistic in later Vijayanagara artworks. Similarly robust thighs and nearly identical understated jewelry displayed by the present bronze, however, very closely match that of a Vijayanagara example of Shiva Chandrashekhara which was once part of the renowned Pan-Asian collection; sold at Christie’s New York, 17 March 2015, lot 34. 

As such, it is safe to date the present figure to the early Vijayanagara period—a period when artists remained committed to reproducing the elegance and lifelike appearance of Hindu bronze deities that Chola artists are lauded for. The present bronze figure of Shiva is sensious and supple, retaining the gravitas of the preceding era.

A bronze figure of Sambandar
Tamil Nadu, Chola period, 10th century
17 ½ in. (45 cm.) high
Art Loss No. S00156749

Provenance:
From an important Italian collection.

The child saint Sambandar stands here with his proper-left arm outstretched and leg lifted to represent his devotion to Shiva. Sambandar, who lived in the seventh century, is traditionally the favorite of sixty-three nayanar or Shaivite saints that were widely venerated in southern India. He came to be a nayanar when he was just three years old while visiting a temple with his brahmin father. The father left Sambandar in a courtyard to take a ritual bath when he heard the boy’s cries. When his father returned to him, the child was smiling and holding a golden cup with milk running from his mouth. When asked where it came from, Sambandar gestured toward the image of Shiva and Parvati in the temple, and burst into song and dance in adoration of the deities.

The right hand of the present image points upwards towards the heavens to show reverence to Shiva and his partner in an expression of bhakti or devotion. Sambandar is known for traveling far and wide praising Shiva, and is credited with writing thousands of hymns which came to form the beginning of the Tamil Shaivite cannon. Despite his prolific piety, he died at a young age and is thus celebrated in that form here.

The present sculpture is a wonderful example of the soft movement and musculature captured by Chola artists. The lightness of Sambandar’s pendant leg and fingertips are most apparent. His narrow face with a long nose and small lips is telling of the early time of its origin. Compare these facial features to a bronze image of Sukhasana at the Government Museum of Chennai (acc. 199) dated to the tenth century as well as an image of Nataraja at the Art Institute of Chicago (acc. 1965.1130).